Category: being human

Nicola, who wants me to be my best self and loves me even when I’m not. Who writes like a murrain, or a bolt of lightning, or a jackdaw flying outward, outward and then home. Thank you, Nicola.

Kindness. So many people have been kind to me in small and large ways. Kindness is love, whether between best-known people or between strangers. If you don’t think strangers can love each other, go out and do a random act of kindness and see how it feels. And if people have been kind to you this year in any way at all, then I am happy for you, and I hope it has mattered as much to you as it has to me. Kind people have saved me this year by giving me so many chances to experience the impact of love in the everyday world. Thank you, kind people.

Writing. I haven’t told nearly all the stories I want to, but they are as strong inside me as a sun. Nuclear. My deep well of story and the dizzying, terrifying, exultant internal life it gives me is the oldest part of me. Other people love me for what I do, mostly — that’s what relationship is, after all, people in action with each other: I love myself for what I am when I am alive with story. Thank you, story-Kelley, for not giving up when the rest of the committee insists that of course you are important, but we’re a little busy right now and we’ll get to you real soon, we promise.

Life. I am doing and feeling and thinking and being a person with a life! My life! Thank you, life!

Also, I am thankful for sea salt, good red wine, tuna casserole, Zumba, all my fierce fabulous family and friends, kittens on the internet, the Grand Canyon, my tattoo, all the things that worked when they were supposed to, all the things that made me reconsider my own bullshit, all the things that I decided aren’t bullshit after all because my life!, laughing with other people so hard that it becomes one of the Great Laughs, conversations, hope, love, joy, breakfast tea with milk… The tea with milk I can get myself. The rest depends on other people. Thank you, all you other people.

And you’re welcome.

Enjoy your day.

And people are amazing. Watch what happens when a little girl in Spain drops a few coins into a street performer’s hat.

Watch the faces.

Enjoy your day

Roger Ebert taught me how to watch movies critically and love the hell out of them.

And he said this (from the Chicago Sun-Times obituary):

“‘Kindness’ covers all of my political beliefs,” he wrote, at the end of his memoirs. “No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.”

Amen.

Enjoy your day, no matter what. Be kind.

From the Hubble Telescope.

I’ve seen brains and I’ve seen some of what’s inside the body, but you know what? This is inside us too.
 

 
Go exploring. Enjoy your day.

This is for J, who is doing a hard scary thing and being very brave.

Doubtless some of you know this story already, but it’s a good one and worth retelling.

—–

A man walked along a beach where a storm had washed starfish up above the tideline. They were dying.

Up the beach, the man saw a little girl picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the sea. She was slow, and she didn’t throw well, and there were thousands of starfish.

As she picked up another, the man said, You’re wasting your time. There are too many. Don’t try so hard. You’re not making any difference.

She threw the starfish and watched it sink into the water. Then she turned to him and said, I made a difference to that one.

—–

Enjoy your day, and please think a kind thought for everyone who makes a difference.

Recently a Jet Blue flight from New York to LAX was diverted to Denver so an unruly passenger could be taken off the plane in handcuffs. I don’t know if this happens more often than it used to, or if we just hear about it more. In this case, the world heard about it from film producer Cassian Elwes, who sat down after the flight to report the story on his Twitter feed.

Go read it. It’s immediate and tense. I imagine finding myself trapped near madness this way, seatbelted next to it, close enough to smell. It scares me. And, at least in this case, it also makes me enormously sad. Because we can be so human in our madness, so human even in moments of ultimate alienation.

I hope I never go mad. But if I do, then I hope someone treats me like Cassian Elwes treated Marco.

Enjoy your day. Be careful. And then, if you can, be kind.

I am fascinated lately by The Art of Manliness. I followed my nose around the internet and found this site because of some very practical posts in a series called Heading Out On Your Own. Gosh, I thought, these are great tips for anyone, not just teh menz. What’s up here?

Today I spent some time exploring the site and came across the writers’ definition of manliness, including the list of manly virtues and the question of whether women should not also be striving for them. To which they say, absolutely. Here’s the part I like: There are two ways to define manhood. One way is to say that manhood is the opposite of womanhood. The other is to say that manhood is the opposite of childhood.

I do not think the creators of the site are gender radicals (grin) nor do I need them to be. But it please me today to think that in many ways I have already achieved manhood, and I shall aspire to the rest. And friends, seriously, do not miss the “Heading Out On Your Own” Series. These are great skills for Young Men of all sexes and genders.

Enjoy your day.

Now I can finally relax and be the Ultimate Girl… with my special BiC for Her pen.
 

 

From Amazon UK, the “technical details”:

• Medium point retractable ball pen available in black and blue ink
• Designed to fit comfortably in a woman’s hand
• Attractive barrel design available in pink and purple
• Smooth writing
• 1.0mm tip gives line width of 0.4mm

And you have to go read the user reviews right now. Because every time I despair of people, they turn around and make me laugh my ass off with their righteous funny. And that is a good thing.

Thank you to Zack and J for the link and the laugh!

Enjoy your day.